Care home falls short on lost jewellery
By David Waters, Managing Director CHIS and PrimeCare Insurance
26 September 2011
When personal items of value (either monetary or sentimental) are lost, it makes everyone feel awful.
Whether through theft, misadventure, neglect or catastrophe, feelings are always compounded by the circumstances leading up to the realisation that something is missing.
Often there is very little anyone can do about the experience of loss, but the next question on everyone's mind is invariably whether the item(s) are covered by an insurance policy.
While this is a logical question, the type of cover and how it is managed are equally if not more important matters to consider - get this right and you will likely save your clients and yourself significant heartache.
A real case in point was a situation where an elderly resident's engagement ring went missing. Apart from its great sentimental value, the ring was valued at £3,600, a significant loss in anyone's measure.
The family promptly submitted a claim for their mother's loss, but this is where it got tricky.
In all honesty, no-one could be absolutely sure how, where or when the ring was lost, but it was assumed the care home would bear responsibility for the loss because it had insurance cover.
Now ensuring they had had the right discussions with the client and her family up front could have been all the protection the care home required in the first place.
Standard procedure was for the care home to advise the family that they would need their own insurance for items of particular value, and that the care home would need to be made aware of any such items.
It is believed the care home staff followed this procedure and the family signed the contract, which set a £500 claim limit per resident under the care home's insurance policy.
In this instance however, the care home was in fact insured for claims up to £2,500 per resident, and the insurers advised the care home that they may be required to pay the maximum amount on this claim if the family decided to challenge the matter.
Generally speaking, the purpose of any contract is to control all possible anticipated outcomes for the protection and benefit all parties involved.
But making absolutely certain clients and their families are fully aware of the standard provisions, making strong recommendations that they arrange their own additional cover and even offering referrals to a broker where necessary, could save you getting involved at all.
In this case the care home management took some steps to protect itself, firstly with an insurance policy and secondly by changing the information it shared with clients about its terms to control and set lower expectations.
But what if the ring had been worth £10,000, or even more?
I believe a key issue is how we regard standard resident's property cover.
As I see it, this is purely to provide a "dignity buffer" for residents caught short after an incident and is in no way an all-encompassing insurance cover for everything the resident may bring with them into the care home.
If, for example, the residents have to be evacuated from the care home in the middle of the night and have no time to collect their belongings, then this would cover some clothes and toiletries to enable them to maintain their dignity in the subsequent few days.
I would urge every care home owner to ensure their residents and their families are fully aware of their basic protection levels, and then be pro-active in recommending they make appropriate arrangements to protect their loved-one's valuables thereafter.
Apart from being a more honest and up-front approach, this is a "must-have" conversation which helps families make better decision all round and offers far better protection for all involved.
If you'd like to discuss your situation further or explore ways to improve your protection measures, feel free to call CHIS on 01273 645921 or email info@chis.net for more information.
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